Jason BeDuhn,
PhD

Interests

Religions of West Asia, Early and Eastern Christianity, Persian Religions

Jason BeDuhn, NAU’s first Guggenheim fellow (2004-2005), is Professor of Religious Studies, and former chair of the Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion (2000-2004). He holds a Ph.D. in the Comparative Study of Religion from Indiana University (1995), an M.T.S. in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard Divinity School (1987), and a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Illinois (1984).His areas of research include Biblical Studies, Ancient Christianities, Manichaeism, Religions of West Asia in Late Antiquity, ritual and and self-forming practices, and method and theory in the study of religion and history. He is the author of The Manichaean Body in Discipline and Ritual (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s “Best First Book” Award in the category of History of Religions, and of Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament (University Press of America, 2003), a controversial critique of doctrinal bias in contemporary Bible translations. The editor of four volumes on Manichaeism and author of numerous articles on a variety of subjects, his newest work is a multi-volume study of Augustine of Hippo, the first volume of which, Augustine’s Manichaean Dilemma, 1: Conversion and Apostasy, 373-388 CE, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2010. Dr. BeDuhn is currently engaged in a multi-year collaborative project to edit and translate an ancient Coptic Manichaean manuscript with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.